Govan Mbeki Municipality Ward councillor and official get bail following fraud arrest
Phillemon Vilakazi, the councillor for Ward 9 in eMbalenhle, and municipal employee Nomvula Mkoko must again appea in the Evander Magistrate’s Court on September 15.
A ward councillor and a Govan Mbeki municipal official who were arrested for alleged fraud were released on bail of R2 000 each on August 29.
Phillemon Vilakazi, the councillor for Ward 9 in eMbalenhle, and municipal employee Nomvula Mkoko appeared in the Evander Magistrate’s Court.
Their arrest followed after a complainant claimed that Vilakazi sold him an RDP house that had already been sold to a third party, defrauding him of R50 000.
According to Constable Busi Mthethwa, the eMbalenhle police spokesperson, the complainant sought a residential stand in eMbalenhle in 2023.
His mother-in-law, a resident of Ext 22 in Ward 9, referred him to Vilakazi.The complainant and his wife met with Vilakazi, who allegedly told them he was selling an RDP house for R65 000. They reportedly settled on an amount of R50 000.
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Mthethwa stated the complainant gave Vilakazi R10 000 in cash and transferred the remaining R40 000 to his bank account. She added that when the complainant went to see the house, someone else, who claimed he had also bought it from Vilakazi, already occupied it.
The police arrested Vilakazi and Mkoko, who worked in the municipality’s housing department, on the night of August 27. The court postponed their case to September 15. It is not Vilakazi’s first run-in with the law. He was previously arrested on April 27 on suspicion of fraud but was released before appearing in court, and the case was withdrawn.
Prior to the withdrawal, police explained that in September last year, a women wanted to buy a stand in eMbalenhle. It was alleged that she was referred to a so-called middleman to whom she paid R30 000, and that Vilakasi had access to that middleman’s bank account.
The complainant alleged that the councillor received R8 000 of the money, and that he had issued her with a confirmation letter for ownership of the stand and said that she could build a temporary structure on the land.
She later became suspicious of the letter, as it transpired that the stand actually belongs to the Govan Mbeki Municipality. She then reported the matter to the police, but Vilakazi was not prosecuted, nor has the so-called middleman been arrested.
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